Joe Wertz

Reporter

Joe Wertz is multi-platform reporter for StateImpact Oklahoma. He has previously served as Managing Editor of Urban Tulsa Weekly, as the Arts & Entertainment Editor at Oklahoma Gazette and worked as a Staff Writer for The Oklahoman. Joe was a weekly correspondent for KGOU from 2007-2010. He grew up in Bartlesville, Okla., lives in Oklahoma City, and studied journalism at the University of Central Oklahoma.

Mary Fallin meets with a worker at a July 2015 event commemorating Oklahoma Gas & Electric's new solar farm in Oklahoma City.

Oklahoma is synonymous with energy. It’s a major oil and gas state and one of the country’s leaders in wind power. But Oklahoma has been slow on solar energy, and experts say that’s because of state policy — not the sun.

After a swarm of earthquakes recorded near the town of Crescent, which peaked with a 4.5-magnitude temblor on Monday, state regulators asked a pair of oil companies to limit activity at three nearby disposal wells.

Oklahoma City’s Devon Energy Production and Arkansas-based Stephens Energy Group agreed to shut down the two wells nearest the shaking. Stephens also agreed to cut by half the amount of waste fluid pumped into a third well, says Corporation Commission spokesperson Matt Skinner. Continue Reading →

Oklahoma added 150 megawatts of wind capacity in the second quarter, according to the association’s latest market report. The addition came from the Osage Wind project in Osage County hooking up to the electric grid. The project, owned by Enel Green Power North America Inc., supplies power to Missouri-based Associated Electric Cooperative Inc. In the state rankings, Oklahoma remained in fourth place, putting its total wind capacity at 3,932 megawatts. The U.S. had a total of 67,870 megawatts of wind capacity by the end of the second quarter, the association said.

A moratorium on disposal wells proposed by the Oklahoma Chapter of the Sierra Club and one state lawmaker “could create economic and environmental problems throughout the state,” representatives of the oil and gas industry say, The Oklahoman’s Adam Wilmoth reports.

“Wastewater injection has been safely conducted in Oklahoma for nearly a century, and it’s an important component of oil and natural gas development, which itself is a critical part of Oklahoma’s economy,” said Steve Everly, Energy In Depth’s senior advisor. “Critics have suggested that injection can simply be shut down in response to earthquakes, but they fail to recognize the costs — both economic and environmental — that Oklahomans would bear if that type of policy were implemented. Science is infinitely more complex than campaign slogans, so people should be skeptical of so-called solutions that are based more on anti-drilling advocacy than effective risk management.” A moratorium effectively would ban drilling throughout the area, including wells not linked to the earthquakes, the report stated.

Stillwater resident Tammy Mix's sons play on the sidewalk as a drilling rig peeks above the tree line behind her Stillwater home in 2014.

After months of debate, drafting and deferring, the Stillwater City Council on Monday approved a stricter oil and gas ordinance.

The council unanimously approved the new rules, which were crafted with the input of residents, the energy industry and Senate Bill 809 — legislation that goes into effect in August preventing municipalities from enacting ordinances that ban fracking and other oil and gas activities, The Oklahoman‘s Adam Wilmoth reports:

The ordinance applies only to new wells. It imposes a 660-foot setback from the property line of “protected use” properties, including homes, churches, parks, schools, libraries and hospitals. It also forbids new structures being built within 400 feet of oil and gas wells put in after the ordinance becomes effective. Continue Reading →

Oklahoma oil and gas authorities are expanding regulations on disposal wells in earthquake-prone regions of the state. The orders, known as directives, were issued this week and broaden restrictions issued nearly four months ago. Continue Reading →

The Norman City Council has approved a months-long update to the city’s oil and gas ordinance, which was written to comply with a new state law forbidding local governments from banning drilling, fracking and other oil and gas activities, The Oklahoman’s Paul Monies reports.

City staff began discussing updates to the oil and gas ordinance in late 2013. The city council discussed the proposals during study sessions in January, February and June.

Unless waived by the nearby property owner, wells in Norman aren’t allowed to be drilled within 600 feet of a home, business, church or school. They can’t be within 300 feet of any producing freshwater well. The city added several specific chemicals and substances to be tested in drinking water wells within a quarter-mile of disposal wells

Abbot Lawrence Stasyszen of St. Gregory's Monastery traces cracks in the walls of the monk's workshop, which was damaged in a 5.7-magnitude earthquake that struck the nearby city of Prague in November 2011.

Lawmakers have scheduled capitol hearings and oil and gas regulators will soon issue stricter guidelines on disposal wells linked to the shaking. Future earthquakes are a big concern, but one Oklahoma institution is still dealing with the damage one quake caused nearly four years ago.

The team at Reveal produced a nifty video on Oklahoma’s earthquake surge that shows, with entertaining visuals, the science of “induced seismicity” — the scientific mechanism that explains how disposal wells used by the oil and gas industry can trigger earthquakes.

About StateImpact Oklahoma

StateImpact Oklahoma is a collaboration of KGOU, KOSU, KWGS and KCCU. Joe Wertz and Logan Layden travel the state to report on the intersection of government, industry, natural resources and the Oklahoma workforce. Read our reports and hear our stories on NPR member stations.